THE TOMATO GROWING THREAD 2018

That's great thanks. We do have The Range in Benton Newcastle so I'll go there. Talking on Sweet Peas mine have hardly grown. Hopefully weather changes for the better.

 

Must have had something to do with the Beast from the East storm we all had. Slowed things up

 

I picked my first two Tumbling Toms last Thursday, 14 June.

 

Hi All,

Expect its somewhere and have looked though a good few pages but not seen any current recommendations as to the best liquid tom food to buy ...?

( just bough my first bag of Jacks compost thats frequently mentioned in the forum and have to say it seems a good even fine mix, unlike some of the others that if riddled give lots of large lumps etc)

 

Well, my first season of growing Toms in the greenhouse goes from what seems like bad to worse

Some of the leaves look like they have Early Blight, which is spreading at a steady rate throughout the plants.





and to add to my frustrations, some of the Moneymakers have developed Blossom End Rot



Now, the BER should not be down to inconsistent watering as my Toms are in Quadgrows, which last year worked perfectly growing Shirley F1 outdoors, so I don't think it is watering related, so maybe something else?

So, I'm just going to let things develop and if all the Toms get wiped out I'll just tear them down, clean up and get ready for next year

This first attempt at greenhouse growing has been such a disappointment.

 

Hi,

You say your first attempt in a greenhouse, but have you grown them outside before and had blight ?

Are you in an area near a lot of allotments or where blight is known to be around ?

Have you tried cutting off the affected leaves and using a fungicide to see if you can halt its progress in case its not blight which they say affects the whole plant very quickly ?

They say is going to be a lot warmer and sunnier from now on so that may help slow things down.

Been lucky and not had any in many years of growing toms in WY and even trying some outdoor ones this year including Crimson Crush cordon which is supposed to be blight resistant.

Never used things like quad grows, just use large plastic pots, around 18" and use fresh compost each year.

 

I've been picking ripe tomatoes from my Micro Toms for weeks, they started flowering in March.

 

My Gartenperle are the most developed followed by one of my black krims. I'm away on holiday just now hoping for a few ripe tomatoes when I get back. The bulk of my plants were only just starting to flower when I left. All growing outside so I don't know if that slows things down a bit.

 

Hi Ricky...I grew them outside last year and they were fine, no Blight at all, the main contributing factor this year was that I grew some spuds in the garden which contracted Early Blight and I think it made it into the greenhouse, because it's the Moneymakers that are right next to the louvre vent that are affected the most.

I'm sick of cutting leaves off, though I will continue now that you have suggested it, and I'll try and find a fungicide from the local GC.

Thanks for the advice and we'll see how it goes.

 

Growing tomatoes can be easy or a minefield, sorry to hear you have blossom end rot.
Blossom end rot as we all know is caused by lack of calcium in the fruits. Calcium deficiency reduces cell membrane permeability and this leads to swelling of the cells followed by leakage and destruction of the membrane structure.
Lack of calcium can be caused in several ways.
1) You must ensure you have calcium in your compost. ( lime, calcified seaweed, dolomite lime, crushed oyster shells etc) Some people use egg shells, however these take a long tome to break down, an easy remedy is to put a couple of calcium tablets into the compost, or you can spray with a calcium solution.

2) Irregular watering can cause it, for calcium to reach the fruits and all other parts of the plant there needs to be a good flow of water through the plant.

3) Over fertilizing can cause it because the concentrated nutrients in the soil /water will restrict water uptake by the plant. Additionally, some fertiliser ingredients - ammonium salts for example - compete with calcium for access to the plant roots causing calcium deficiency.

I am growing 35 tomato plants and ten peppers (six sweet four chillies) twenty of the tomatoes are in quad grows the rest in pots all plants in my own made up compost with plenty of calcium in it, I also spray with cal/mag once per week. Most are grown from seed, however I bought in some plants two were Shirley plants from the garden centre a while ago.
Of all the plants I am growing only one plant has blossom end rot and it is one of the Shirley plants which is growing in a quad grow. This plant has suffered quite badly I lost all of the first truss and several toms on the second truss as well as one on the third truss. The plant seems very healthy otherwise good roots no rot, good leaves and good fruit on subsequent trusses.
I grow organically and have 34 other tomato plants with no sign of it grown in the same mix of compost treated in the same way, I use no chemical fertilizers so no harsh salts so have ruled out overfertilizing.
It is in a quad grow so irregular watering should not be the cause.
It is believed that stress can cause it, however I have seen no signs of stress or disease
I do not know what went wrong It goes to show no matter how well you treat plants you can still sometimes suffer, I may have got it wrong, the garden centre may have got it wrong however I doubt it was the garden centre as I got the plants very small long before any flowers were forming.
Hope this helps Sandy